Kenchinjiru (Japanese Vegetable Soup) & Sweet Potato Rice

It's soup season and one of my favorite soups is Kenchijiru, a Japanese vegetable soup. Originally from Kenchoji Temple, the first Zen Buddhist temple in Japan, this warming soup is a typical temple dish, made from root vegetables stir-fried in sesame oil then simmered in konbu-flavored broth. Crumbling a block of tofu into the soup for all to share is an example of the Zen belief that food should be divided equally between the residents of a temple, regardless of their status. Today soup was made with burdock roots, carrots, taro potato, daikon radish, konyaku (yam cake), and tofu, seasoned with dashi (fish stock) and soy sauce.

The soup was paired with a Japanese sweet potato (satsu-imo) rice. The rice was cooked in dashi stock, sake, and a pinch of sugar, and then black sesame seeds sprinkled on top before serving.